Thursday, November 26, 2009

I know, I know…it’s been a long time since my last post here. I’ve no excuse other then I’ve been extremely busy with work. When you run a small production company, you’ve got to take the work when it’s there. And in this economy, that sometimes means taking more then you normally can handle. After a few long days, things are getting back to normal. I've had some really fun and interesting projects.

For those Premiere Pro users out there, Adobe released the 4.2 update for CS4. It adds AVC-I native support which is something long overdue in my opinion. I tested it out and it seems to work great. I have to say that while Adobe does make us wait for format support, when they do deliver it usually is very good. AVC-I is a great codec, and it was one of the reasons why I really looked at getting the HPX-300 camera. But having now shot a few projects with my EX-3, I don't regret my decision at all - the EX-3 is such an incredible camera.

Also included is updated support for FCP project importing. You now have the ability to import FCP 7 projects into Premiere Pro. While they didn’t add FCP export, I’ve read that they are still working on that. For those who live in San Diego, I am planning on showing the FCP-Premiere Pro workflow at the next Premiere Pro User Group meeting. I’ll post more on that when I have details. If you're a FCP editor and want to help out, please let me know. Oh, and just another word about the next meeting - it's looking like I'll have a really great raffle prize...can't say for sure just yet, but it's looking good! It could be a very Merry Christmas for one lucky person.

One other big note regarding Premiere Pro is the Mercury playback engine. What’s that, you ask? It' s only the next big thing in editing. When this is released, it will be a game changer - big time. It uses the GPU of your video card to playback multiple video clips with effects added from the timeline in realtime…we’re talking about some heavy effects on the clips – color correction, blur, etc. And it works on clips ranging from DV all the way to 4K RED files.

It’s still in beta testing now, and Adobe hasn’t said when it will be released (I'm hoping and praying it's ready for CS5). But know this, with Premiere Pro going 64 bit in CS5, adding this would make an already great looking release even better. If you want to know more, you can go here and watch a video about it - it's a few minutes in. You can also check out Dennis Radeke’s The Genesis Project blog for more info. I can’t tell you how exciting this is. It really has the potential to make editing so much easier and faster. It’ll be interesting to see what Apple and Avid come up with in response.

If you'd like to see full video about this, check here. This video says it all - it's just an amazing new technology.

Monday, October 12, 2009

I finally made the leap - the leap into HD. I just got my EX3 and I have to say...it's pretty awesome.

For those of you who know me, I've been shopping for a camera for some time now. I narrowed my search down to two cameras - the Panasonic HPX-300 and the Sony EX-3. Both are great cameras, and the decision was a tough one to make. But after spending time with both cameras, and thinking about what would be the smartest buy for me and 100 Acre Films, the Sony EX-3 was the winner.

Both cameras have some great features and some drawbacks. Both use CMOS sensors, which is a blessing and a curse, and both are tapeless (good) using expensive media to record on (bad). The HPX-300 has a 1/3" sensor, but the camera can record AVC-I which is a great codec. The Sony has a 1/2" sensor, but it records with an interframe MPEG codec - good, but not as good as AVC-I.

No camera is perfect. They all have things that can sometimes drive us nuts. I think that when you decide to buy a camera you really have to look at your needs, your workflow, and your budget. All of these should be primary factors in your purchase decision. For me, both cameras fit into my budget, both fit perfectly into my workflow, and for what I do - they are exactly what I need. But I felt that the Sony would serve me better then the Panasonic.

If you'd like to know more about the cameras, or you'd like to know more about how I made my decision, let me know and I'll share what I know and learned about both cameras.

Here's a short video I put together with footage shot with my new camera. There's some color-correction in a few shots (I didn't adjust the white balance on some shots), and but overall I left the footage as-is.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

The ProVideo Coalition website is a wealth of information. If you don't have it bookmarked, you should. There are some really smart people that post great articles there.

I came across a few articles that I thought I would pass along to you all. The first article is about using both Premiere Pro and Avid for editing, and using the speech transcription tool in Premiere Pro along with ScriptSync in Avid. While the writer, Steve Hullfish, prefers to finish his edit in Avid, I would stick with Premiere Pro for the entire edit. But I think the article highlights something that Adobe has going for it - it works well with others. Someone correct if I'm wrong, but outside using an EDL, I don't know another NLE that allows you to open up project files from a different NLE, and let you save out a project file that you can open in another NLE (just for Avid at the moment). "Big deal, Addison!" you might say. "Why would I ever want to take my project out of ___?" Well, here's one such example.

My goal for the group is to expand the knowledge of we Premiere Pro editors, as well as form a network where we can all call on each other when we need help. I have to be honest - there aren't as many of us PPro editors out there, and we should do all we can to help each other out.

One thing I want to try and do every meeting is have a member show something they created, and talk about how they did it - show the workflow they used, how they used Premiere Pro (and After Effects, Photoshop, whatever...) to create their video. I've learned so much by listening to others talk about how they did things, how their creative process works, and how they efficiently used their tools.

So, for those of you who edit with Premiere Pro and live in the SoCal area, I hope you can make it. It should be a lot of fun, and I hope you can walk away from the meeting with some good tips for making your work better. And who knows - you may make some new friends.

The first meeting will be on October 29th at 7pm. For more information you can check the website, or just contact me. If you want to attend, please let me know so I can get an accurate head count. See you then!

Monday, September 14, 2009

I get lots of email - too MUCH email to be honest. But I do get email from some great sources of information in regards to our industry. One such place is ProMax (http://www.promax.com/). They can help you build your edit system and much more. They don't seem to advertise systems that run Premiere Pro CS4, but I'll try not and hold that against them.

As someone getting very, very close to getting a new HD camera (the Sony XDCAM EX3 may soon be mine!), I'm looking at moving the majority of my workflow into an all HD environment. I've done a lot of homework, but I got an email from the folks at ProMax that listed five gotcha's for editing HD. It contains some really helpful hints, and I thought I'd pass it along to all of you. You may know some of this - you may not, but I hope it helps some of you who, like me, are leaving Standard Definition behind and embarking into the bright, shiny world of HD...

HD really is the future of video production and post. SD and DV are pretty much on their way out. It’s very hard to find a post house working with any SD and/or DV footage and most networks won’t accept any new content that is not shot and edited in HD. Having said that, to edit HD properly, you need to be prepared because there are some “gotchas” that if you don’t address before you start your project, you will have issues finishing that project.

Below is our list of the top 5 gotchas when editing HD:

Not getting the right amount or type of storage.Make sure you have not only the right amount of storage (which depends on the type of HD you will edit), but also the right type. There are many choices out there, from SAS to eSATA to USB to Firewire drives. Each type has its positive and negatives. Other things to look into when getting a storage solution includes the speed of the drive (e..g 5400 RPM vs. 7200 RPM vs. 10K RPM) and how the storage solution is set up (such as RAID 0, 1, etc.). Picking the wrong solution for the type of HD editing you need to work on will make your project fail from day one.

Thinking all HD is the same.

All HD is not the same. If you are going to edit HDV, you can get away with a lower powered system running a Firewire drive. If you are going to edit XDCAM EX or DVCPRO HD footage, you will need a more powerful system to properly edit that footage. Thinking of editing uncompressed HD? Now you are talking about a high-powered system with lots of memory and storage space running in RAID mode. It’s important to note that all HD is not the same and you need to have a system properly configured for the specific type of HD you will edit.

Thinking you can use your SD images and motion graphics in your HD edit

Do you have a lot of Standard Definition images from previous projects that you want to use in HD? What about motion graphics you created in SD? How about stock footage that was shot in SD? You will need to up-res most of your footage that was SD to match the new resolution size of HD. Thinking you can just drop an SD footage, increase it’s size by 200% and think it will look great, is a big mistake that you don’t want to be caught making in the middle of your project!

Not having an archiving solution in place

HD takes up a lot of storage space. If you are working with a tapeless solution (such as XDCAM EX or P2) then you won’t have a proper backup of that footage in a secure tape. You need to figure out an archiving solution that protects the footage from any accidental deletions or hard drive crashes.

Thinking all NLE’s can author Blu-Ray DVDs

Not all NLEs can author Blu-Ray. In fact, depending on which platform you do your video editing on, you can be severely limited on the ability to author Blu-Ray DVDs affordably. Make sure you know all of your options before you start your project if your final delivery method needs to be in Blu-Ray.

But the one site I visit on a regular basis and always with a high level interest and excitement is Video Copilot (www.videocopilot.net). If you don’t know the site, or its owner Andrew Kramer, get to know them. The site is jam packed with tutorials that I guarantee will make you better with After Effects. Andrew walks you through the steps in creating some of the most amazing stuff. You’ll look at some of the clips in the tutorial section and think, “There’s no way I can do that!” Really? Watch the tutorial and Andrew will show you how…and usually with no extra plug-ins other then what’s in After Effects.

And it’s not just the tutorials that are great. I own and use on a regular basis many of the products sold on the site. Riot Gear, Evolution, the Twitch plug-in, and the Designer Sound FX are all regular tools in my arsenal. I wouldn’t go into an edit without them. Also on the site are custom After Effects presets that allow you to do some really great things. I really can’t encourage you enough – visit this site…it will make you better. If you look at my demo reel (www.100acrefilms.com), you’ll see many of these tools used in it.

I can’t imagine anyone working in our industry not making the time to visit sites like those I listed. There is so much out there, and I think that no matter how long you’ve been working there is always something new you can learn. I spend a lot of time on the web, reading and watching clips about how to improve my skills. Even if it’s something I already know how to do, I’ll watch because every once and awhile I pick up some trick to do it quicker, or some other shortcut that helps me with some other task.

What sites do you visit? Where do you go to learn and grow your skills?

One last thing – for those of you who read this and live in the San Diego area, I’m starting up a Premiere Pro user group. If you’re interested in joining up (come on – I know you Premiere Pro users are out there!), then let me know and I’ll keep you in the loop. It should be a lot of fun – and hopefully very informative.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

I've been meaning post a review of Red Giants Key Correct Pro for some time now, but as I've just gotten married and had a crazy couple of months, I haven't had a chance. But I saw yesterday on the Red Giant site (http://www.redgiantsoftware.com) that they are running a sale on Key Correct Pro for $99.

If you do any green screen work at all, this plugin is (in my opinion) a must have. If you shoot DV and/or HDV for compositing work, it becomes even more useful. I've been planning a whole big entry about how it works and showing some examples of work I've used it on. But this clip from the Red Giant site does a much better job. It's by Michele Yamazaki, who wrote a book called Greenscreen Made Easy. You can view the tutorial here:

Sunday, July 26, 2009

I couldn’t help but notice that Apple released Final Cut Studio 3 last week. Being an Adobe Production Premium guy, it doesn’t really affect me too much in my day to day world of production. But, it a larger sense, it affects all of us in the production world because if Apple’s stats are right (50% of the editing market, 1.4 million users) then that’s a big number of people using FCP. I have no idea how they arrive at the 50% number – did they poll post-production houses? I must have missed that one…

But back to my point…as Apple now claims to own half the market it would seem that makes them the leaders - I’m guessing Avid and Adobe control the next 2 largest shares. And as the leaders, when they release something, it’s usually a big deal. I remember when FCS 2 came out – I was at NAB that year. Good Lord…judging by their booth, you’d think that they had redefined the NLE. And truth be told – it was a great release. ProRes, Color, new version of Motion. The point of all this is to say that a lot of the industry looks to Apple to see what they are doing – where they are headed. For better or for worse, those of us non-FCP editors have to acknowledge that it’s becoming (if it isn’t already) a FCP world. What Apple does makes the other NLE makers stand up and take notice.

And with such market dominance, it was a big surprise when I saw the press release for FCP 7 and FCS3. My reaction was, “Really – that’s it? After 2 years, that’s all you came up with?” I think some of the changes are pretty good – the new ProRes formats look intriguing. But as a whole, this feels more like it should be FCS 2.5 rather then 3. I heard so many rumors – rumors of a UI overhaul, more native drag and drop support (no log and transfer), 64 bit, etc. I guess I was expecting more (after 2 years) from the mighty Apple.

So, as a Premiere Pro editor how does this affect me? Well, I really feel now that CS4 is a better, more feature rich NLE then FCP…but I realize that’s my opinion – go ahead all you FCP editors, tell me why I’m wrong…I can take it! I think that if Apple doesn’t release another version of FCS shortly after it releases Snow Leopard (as has been rumored), then I think Adobe and Avid could gain some ground back on that 50%. I expected, as I think many others did, that Apple would take the lead big time with this release and I don’t believe they did. I wouldn’t go so far as to say they are treading water with it, but they aren’t swimming that fast.

Can Avid and Adobe catch that 50% number? Not overnight, but the video/film market is changing…and changing fast. Players have to keep up with the move to tapeless formats and new workflows. If Avid and Adobe can provide solid solutions to those new formats and workflows before Apple can, it could shift the industry. Apple has a lot on its plate – iPhones, iPods, iTunes…as well as looking towards a future without Steve Jobs. Could their competition be sneaking up on them – maybe. Time will tell…

This all reminds of me of a few years ago. When Adobe released Production Premium CS3, many of us Premiere Pro editors were a little disappointed. While the bundle did add OnLocation (formally DV Rack) and Ultra to the group, and added Premiere Pro back on the Mac, the changes to Premiere Pro were pretty minimal. Ironically, one of those changes was better clip speed and time re-mapping features. I heard from many Premiere Pro editors who said they were going to skip the upgrade because Premiere Pro 2 was almost rock solid and there wasn’t enough incentive to upgrade. I think many did later when native P2 and XDCAM support was added through free updates. But it just wasn’t enough reason to spend the money at first.

So I ask you FCP users…is this your CS3 release? Do you feel Apple dropped the ball, or are you really excited about this release? If so, what are you excited about? Where do you think Apple should go with FCP and FCS as a whole?

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

I love...wait, let me try that again. I LOVE Red Giant. Never heard of Red Giant? Well, you should. Get to know them and their products. They make some of the best tools out there. I would never make it without Looks, Colorista, and Key Correct Pro (I'll be posting about that soon - promise!). That's just a short list of their great product line up.

Stu Maschwitz has done a great tutorial about matching the looks of Hollywood films using Looks and Colorista...wait, you haven't heard of Stu? Again, someone you may want to check out - www.prolost.com. Stu is the guy every indie filmmaker should check out. He started out at ILM (he was there when I was an intern there), and he now does his best to show how you can get Hollywood looks on a low budget. He just got hired on as a Creative Director at Red Giant so that can only mean great things in the future.

If you really want to improve your color correcting skills, I would encourage you to check out this tutorial. It's around 35 minutes or so, but it's really worth it.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

I came across this video and had to post it. While I don't think it's going to storm the market and replace Final Cut Pro or Avid, it's nice to see someone thinking a bit out of the norm and creating something completely new.

Monday, June 15, 2009

I’ve been using the new 4.1 update for Premiere Pro CS4. It’s a great update with some nice new features, and some great new support. “Big deal, Addison,” you may be thinking. “I cut with Final Cut Pro or Avid. Why would I care about Premiere Pro?” Well, that may be true. However, I know that many of you out there have (smartly, in my opinion) purchased the entire Adobe CS4 production suite but only use After Effects and Photoshop…Premiere Pro sits there idle, lonely, and waiting to be called into service. Maybe you’ll find yourself in a situation where you’ll think, “Hey, I need to do [insert problem here]. I seem to recall that Eric Addison guy saying Premiere Pro can do that. Let’s boot it up and try.”

One new addition came in handy this week for a project I’m working on. I was called on to add some clips to a DVD project I originally did last year. I didn’t have the master tapes handy to pull the clips needed, but I did have DVDs that contained the clips and I could pull those clips right into Premiere Pro. Normally, I would never do this. To maintain the highest quality, I always try and pull footage from the camera original tapes, or use the edited master. But, as I mentioned, I didn’t have access to those, and securing them would take some time so this way was the quickest.

To begin, I created a new project in Premiere Pro, then put the DVD in the DVD player, and in the media browser within Premiere Pro I was able to see the VOB files on the disc. Finding the one I needed, I loaded the video clip in the preview monitor, marked the in and out points that I needed, and then dragged the segment to the timeline. From there I was able to export out an AVI file with the DV codec. No opening up DVD ripping software, no playing the DVD while recording to tape…none of that. Just import the video as I would any other media, and drop it on the timeline.

I did this for the other clips I needed, and finished off the new DVD in Encore. And you know, the footage looks fine – you’d never know where it came from. Again, this isn’t something I would normal want to do – I always try and get the best quality. But sometimes, you have to work with what you got to make a deadline. One other note about this, if I needed to do more editing to the clip, I could have. I can actually edit together different clips from the same DVD...I'm actually editing video from a DVD source.

Something else improved in the 4.1 update is the support for RED cameras. Premiere Pro works with native RED files – the actual .R3D files, not the Quicktime proxies. If you want to work with 4K footage, at 4K resolution, Premiere Pro is your editor. I know that most computers will have issues with 4K footage, but the scaling functions included in the new RED support allows you to create a 4K timeline, use 4K footage, but drop down the resolution playback quality so that you can get good performance playback. You also can go in and adjust all the source clip settings (the ASA, the exposure, white balance level, color space, etc.) with the footage on the timeline. And as always, you can import your finished edit into After Effects for any finishing work you may need to do. Or just finish it all in Premiere Pro.

I could go on about the RED workflow, but to be honest I’m still learning it myself. I’ve got a lot of RED footage, and I’m going through the new features and teaching myself (with the help of tutorials) the ins and outs of working with RED. It’s really rather remarkable – I can even edit 4K footage on my laptop…my laptop! But I do feel confident in taking on any RED projects out there.

So, maybe this encourages you FCP and Avid owners who have the Adobe production suite installed to click on that Pr icon and open up Premiere Pro…maybe it doesn’t. But if it doesn’t, then I say come on – live a little! It’s not like the Apple or Avid police will storm in and indict you with treason. Have some fun and see what some of us other kids are playing with. You may just find yourself wanting to, oh…I don’t know, edit a project with it? You never know…

There's also other new feaures in the update...maybe I'll cover those in a future post.

Next time, I’m going to share about a very handy and powerful tool used when doing keying. I got it not too long ago, and I’ve been learning it so as to be ready for the next compositing job I get. I can already see it making my job so much easier, as well as giving me better keys.

Lastly, I’ve no idea how many of you out there read this, but to those that are, I hope you enjoy it and find it useful. If there’s anything you’d like me to cover, or if you have any questions, speak up and I’ll do my best to respond.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you need to start editing right away, or cut while on location to see how things will look later? Or, for those still shooting on tape, are you just over the whole capture process? Have you ever got back into the edit bay and found that in the best take of a shot, there was a glitch in the tape and it’s now completely unusable?

If any of this hits home with you, let me tell you about one of my favorite, and most relied upon tools…Adobe’s OnLocation CS4.

OnLocation is a tool that allows you to capture video while you’re shooting, all through the firewire ports on your camera and laptop. It can capture DV standard definition in both AVI and Quicktime formats, as well as, HDV and DVCPRO HD. It includes a monitor for viewing your image, scopes (waveform and vectorscope) for fine tuning your image, as well as a set of audio meters. The monitor includes markers for title safe, zebra, and colors bars for proper calibration.

Using this tool, I’ve been able review footage while in the field, all while not touching the tape in the camera. I’ve cut together takes (after importing the footage into Premiere Pro) and checked to make sure edits will match. And for interviews, I’ve created (ahead of time) a shot list in OnLocation using all the names of the people I’m taping, along with any other metadata needed. This has made finding clips much quicker in editing.

Let me walk you through the basic workflow. After hooking up the camera and booting up the laptop, I start by creating a new project in OnLocation. Depending on the nature of the shoot, I can then just start shooting. OnLocation will start once I hit record on the camera, and create the clip until I hit stop on the camera. It will even get the 5-10 seconds before I hit record – no more missing the start of a shot because I hit record too late...which sometime happens when covering a live event or presentation where I have no control over when things start.

The other option is to create a shot list. I had a shoot where I was doing a group of interviews. I got everyone’s name ahead of time, and in OnLocation created place makers for shots. I used the interviewee’s names to title each clip. When I got to the shoot, I just opened up the project, found the clip place marker in the shot list for the first person, highlighted it, and then hit record.

All the metadata that I include with the clip in OnLocation carries over into Premiere Pro when I edit. I’m able to search through the clips using the metadata - I can search for the date, the location, whatever I include. And I can now, using the speech to text feature in Premiere Pro, create a text file of what’s being said in the clip and search by the words spoken. While this technology is still a bit rough (the transcription isn’t always accurate), most of the time it’s good enough to still be a help with long interview clips.

Something I’m looking forward to in the future is Adobe Story. Shown at NAB this year, it allows you to import in (or create) your script, then export out an XML file that OnLocation can import. Using all the shot information from your script, a shot list will be created in OnLocation including all the information from the script – characters names, location of the scene, dialogue, etc. This metadata then lives with the video clip while you edit, helping you find the shot or take you need all that much quicker.

From this quick overview, I hope you can see why I love this tool. It’s been an incredible timesaver. As I said, I never go on a shoot without it. It’s become just as valuable to me as my camera or NLE. If you ever find yourself in a position where you think you could use something like this for a project, let me know. And while I don't rent out my laptop for others to use, I will come out and capture footage for you - just let me know and I'll give you more details. I’d be happy to show you why I love it, and after you try it, you may never shoot without it.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Hi! Welcome to the first entry on the 100 Acre Films Tech Corner blog. I plan on using this space to share any interesting things I come across the in the every changing world of film and video production. If you work in this industry, you know that the tools of the trade change all the time. I'll also use it to discuss what I'm using to create the videos I work on such as any cool plugins or software I come across.

To start things off, one of the things I get asked most about is why I edit with Premiere Pro. In a world dominated by Avid and the ever growing Final Cut Pro, why on earth would I use anything else? Don't I see the brilliance of each of these products?

Well, yes...and no.

The first experience I ever had with an NLE was Premiere 4.2. For those that used it back in those days, you probably remember something that looked like this...

Now, it was a bit rough in those days...and I wouldn't blame people for going to Avid or FCP when it was released. Premiere needed an overhaul. And in 2003, it got one. Once Adobe rebuilt Premiere and released Premiere Pro, I was sold. With every version, they improve upon it and I find that the workflow is the best around. Now, it looks like this...One reason I love it is because I use After Effects - a lot! And the way that Premiere Pro works with After Effects is simply the best. I can create AE projects within PPro, do all the work in AE, then flip back over to PPro and see things updated. I don't need to render out any files from AE any more - just import the AE project into PPro, and it drops right on the timeline. I know that Apple has something like this with Motion and FCP, but in my opinion, Motion is no AE. The same sort of workflow exists within all the Adobe Production products - Photoshop, Encore, and Soundbooth. It all just works together so well.

Also, as we move into a tapeless workspace I find Adobe's native format support to be the best. I don't ever have to log and transfer footage like FCP does. If I have some P2 footage, I just import the MXF files right from the P2 card and I'm editing - same with XDCAM footage, AVCHD, and RED footage. Also, being able to capture on my laptop in the field through OnLocation, and then start editing in PPro right away without ever touching tape is something that I think is just amazing and a huge time saver.

I could go on and on about all the features that I think make PPro superior to FCP and Avid, but I won't - if you want to really know email me and we can talk (or argue depending on how dogmatic you are about your NLE). I think the bottom line is I feel more comfortable creating with this tool set. I know that FCP has some advantages, as does Avid. No NLE is perfect, and they all have strong points with room for improvement in areas. Avid is by far one of the most stable and robust edit tools around. And FCP is without question one of the most used and supported NLEs on the market. But there isn't anything that I can do in those systems that I can't in PPro. Oh, and did I mention that PPro can import in (and soon export) FCP projects, and (very soon) Avid projects as well?

To me, it's more about the person using the tool. It's about how creative is that person is, and if they using something that best exploits their talents. I do much better work with the Adobe tool set. It fits the way I work. I'm lucky in that I work for myself and don't often find myself (anymore at least) going into other people's shops and editing on their systems. If that's the way I was living, I'd probably have a Mac with FCP - it's just used by far more people. As much as I think Adobe has a got a better product, it wouldn't matter - I've got to eat so I'll learn what everyone is using.

So, for those that wonder just why I use Premiere Pro instead of something else, I hope this somewhat clears it up. If you haven't checked out what Premiere Pro can do, I encourage you to check it out. It's not that same editor you remember - it's in a whole different league. I'd be happy to give you a demo.